


The Birds Have Flown Away From You

by ghostforests



Category: Eerie Crests (Webcomic)
Genre: ANGST LIKE YOU WOULDNT BELIEVE, Body Horror, Bullying, Feel free to mssg me for more tags, Hallucinations, I was really sad that night okay, Implied abuse, Implied murder by abuser, M/M, Suicidal Thoughts, This is generally pretty rough and sad, but it's good, im so sorry, is that it?, it's short, lots of trigger warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 09:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12252024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostforests/pseuds/ghostforests
Summary: Prompt: finding dead bodies in the basement of your missing best friend (thanks to my wonderful bf)Dallas goes exploring in Malek's house long after he's gone, and finds things that he never wanted to find. But they shouldn't have stayed buried either.





	The Birds Have Flown Away From You

**Author's Note:**

> This is really pretty sad, but so am I?? Yeah  
> (Windswept by Crywolf is a good vibe for this)

Dallas wasn't sure why he was down here. 

He had been staring at that mound of dirt for probably thirty minutes now, not wanting to know why it was there. What might be laying under it, waiting for him to find it. 

Nadia let him in the house sometimes, because he still had a key and he couldn't ever stop thinking about Malek. No one was in the house right now, it had been dark and quiet when he walked in the front door and it was even darker down here. The basement had always been the worst part of Mal's house, with a dirt floor and creaky wooden shelves that cut out all light and sound. It smelled musty, and always a bit like iron. 

It smelled a lot like iron now. 

There was something sitting on the stairs behind Dallas, a crow. He watched passively as two more joined it, nine eyes blinking at him, glowing in the dark. Dallas felt sick. They weren't dead, but that meant nothing. They also weren't actually there. 

He regretted coming here alone. His phone wasn't getting service down here and Poppy wasn't around, up visiting Dev instead. Dallas understood. She needed time. Everyone told him he should stop coming here, but it helped him forget about the things people wrote on his locker and whispered behind his back. As if he'd *ever* hurt Malek. 

When he'd walked in the door, he had moved to go up to the attic. Instead, he had seen a stag watching him softly from the hallway. Something in his head whispered to him, pulled him gently closer. 

Follow me. 

He had shivered, the house was cold without the warmth of Malek Solh and his smile like a comfortable campfire. Cold and quiet, like something vital had been ripped from inside of it and it was hanging in suspension in time and space. When the deer took a step to turn around, he went with it. The basement door had been closed, but unlocked. No one ever went down here, anyway. At first he had thought it was locked, but it was just stuck on the door jam. It's hesitance to let him inside sent prickles up his spine, told him not to go down there and to stop following the deer.

But it had already passed through the heavy oaken door like it was a gentle breeze, and he was determined to know why. To know where it wanted him to go. He had almost fallen down the stairs, and the lightbulb wouldn't work. He had only the light of his phone to find the slightly glowing deer, light spreading out from it like water overflowing from a bowl. It had been pacing in front of a row of shelves, like it needed him to go faster. To find the destination before it disappeared, a spiritual navigating system. He felt safe in the light of the deer, despite the walls of the basement pressing in on him. It was the first time in a long time he felt peaceful. 

The two of them had reached the back corner of the basement, and where Dallas expected to find thick cobwebs he only traced air with his fingers. The deer had lain down on the slightly raised mound of dirt, rested it's head on the ground in front of it like it was carrying the weight of a thousand worlds, and faded gently into nothing. 

So that was a lie.

He *did* know why he was down here, but he couldn't bring himself to start digging. The low battery of his phone pushed him forward onto his knees, the birds making no noise as they fluttered to rest on the shelves behind him. His fingers pushed into the dirt, tugging the loose particles up to his knees. It wasn't long before he felt his fingers brush something like fabric, and something lodged itself in his throat and wouldn't shake itself free. He didn't want to see what it was, he never wanted to know. If he knew for sure, it would all be over. Blindly, he felt his way along the form, brushing it free of dirt, senses sure he was touching skin but brain forcing the knowledge out and away. 

When Dallas knew the body was uncovered, he switched on his phone. 

Malek lay there in the dirt, hastily covered up by someone who never wanted him to be found but had nowhere to put him for now. His face was swollen with bruises, a ring of darkness circling his neck in the shape of someone's fingers. Malek was over six feet tall. Dallas knew he may've been able to fight back, but he clearly hadn't won the fight. 

He felt sick, but his stomach wouldn't give him release. There was nothing left in his eyes, either, just emptiness and hopelessness as he stared down at the body of a boy he'd loved. A boy he still loved. Checking for a pulse was meaningless, idiotic, and Dallas did it anyway. He, of course, found nothing. The birds were gone now and so was Malek, for sure. 

The light on his phone dulled, and then turned off. In the light, Malek's eyes had been open. Dallas reached out in the darkness, traced his face, shut his eyelids with a resignation that weighed heavy on his bones. The realization that this story wouldn't ever have a happy ending gave motivation to the feeling stuck in his throat, and he just kept choking, unable to get any air past it. 

It wasn't like he cared, anyway. For now, Dallas would only exist in the dirt with Malek like he had hoped they wouldn't do for years, decades to come. 

Dallas was just a boy on the dirt floor of a basement with nothing at all to lose anymore. 

The birds were gone, so was Malek, and Dallas wished he had gone with them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry


End file.
